Helsinki Airport (HEL)

Find quickly the most important information to plan your travel to Helsinki Vantaa Airport, airport code HEL, the most important airport in Finland

Helsinki Airport (IATA: HEL, ICAO: EFHK), also known as Helsinki - Vantaa Airport, is located in the city of Vantaa, 17 km north of Helsinki. Is the main airport of Finland that serves Helsinki metropolitan region. It is also a popular transfer point between Asia and Europe, due it's geographical location and fast and easy transfers.
It serves as a hub for Finnair, its subsidiary Nordic Regional Airlines, CityJet, Jet Time, TUIfly Nordic and operatic base for Norwegian Air Shuttle. The airport is a focus city for Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia.

In 2017, the airport served over 18 Million passengers, being the fourth busiest airport in the Nordic countries and the 29th busiest airport in Europe.

Awards

In March 2018, Skytrax World Airport Ranking awarded Helsinki Airport as the best airport in Northern Europe.

History

Helsinki Airport was originally built for the 1952 Summer Olympic Games.

Helsinki Airport is the hub of Finnair

Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are close one from other

Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland

The airport served over 18 Million passenger in 2017

Terminals

Helsinki Airport is divided in two terminals that are only separated by a 250 metres pedestrian corridor. HEL Airport can handle 17 million passengers annually approximately.

- Terminal 1: It is called the Domestic Terminal and was the first one opened in the airport. Boarding gates 11 - 15 are located in this terminal (in the nearly future also gates 1-15) and is used by member airlines of Star Alliance. Currently airlines don't operate long haul flights from Terminal 1.

- Terminal 2: It is the International Terminal, opened in 1969. It has gates 32-38 and 16-60, and although is known as the international terminal, it also serves some domestic flights. It is used by member airlines of Skyteam and Oneworld airline alliances and, in addition, Turkish Airlines uses T2 too as an exception. Charter flights are handled at Terminal 2 and almost 30 airlines are using T2.
It has a new shopping area, restaurants, bars, etc.

Helsinki Airport in numbers

- Is the main international airport of the Helsinki metropolitan area.
- Is about 17 km far away from Helsinki city center.
- HEL airport is the biggest airport in Finland.
- Is 29th largest airport in Europe in terms of passengers numbers and the fourth one in the Nordic countries.
- The airport handles around 350 departures daily.
- In 2017 the airport handled 18.8 million passengers, this figure is the own record for Helsinki airport.
- 81% of the total number of passengers in the 21 airports in Finland
- It has 2 Terminals: T1 and T2 and a total of 3 runways.
- In the airport operate more than 50 airlines
- Stockholm, London and Copenhagen are the busiest international routes.
- Over 130 direct destinations in 45 countries around worldwide.
- Nearby the airport there are several hotels.
- A third terminal is planned to be built in the future.
- Helsinki airport serves as a hub for CityJet, Finnair, Jet Time, Norwegian Air Shuttle and TUIfly Nordic.